


And Here I Go, Dancing With You

by flipflop_diva



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Dancing, During Canon, F/M, First Dance, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Natasha Feels, Natasha-centric, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 13:35:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7575913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time she dances with them is the time she most remembers. A remix of Jain's fic 'Five People Natasha Romanov Has Danced With.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Here I Go, Dancing With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Five People Natasha Romanov Has Danced With](https://archiveofourown.org/works/694621) by [Jain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jain/pseuds/Jain). 



> Jain, I loved your original fic. It was so lovely and painted such a sweet, insightful look into Natasha. I wanted to keep exploring the scenes you'd already laid out, to see what might happen next. I really hope I did your fic even a little bit of justice!

[The Winter Soldier]

The thing she remembered most about their first dance lesson was the feeling of his metal fingers, wrapped around her waist. His grip was firm — not tight enough to leave any bruising but tight enough for her to understand without a hint of question that those metal fingers could kill her if she so much as thought about stepping out of line.

She didn’t. She let him lead, and she followed, her feet quickly picking up the steps and the rhythm he showed her. He seemed impressed. He nodded at her when they were finished, his eyes looking her over, but it was his fingers that lingered on her waist, the power and the strength contained within them so very evident.

“You did well,” he told her. “But you can do better.”

She nodded, a “Yes, Sir,” easily flowing off his lips.

He let go of her then, but looked her over again. “I will see you next time,” he told her.

She nodded again, quickly retreating from the room as she was supposed to, but at the door she paused. She had been taught to never show weakness, to never show curiosity of things she should not be curious of, but she couldn’t help it. For a single second, she turned back, watching the light glint off those metal fingers.

She shuddered slightly and headed for her room.

•••

[Clint Barton]

The thing she remembered most from the first time they danced was the twinkle in his eye as he spun her around and around the room. Sure, most of it was an act — cuddling up to each other more than they would ever actually do if they weren’t undercover, the way she touched his arm and smiled at him adoringly, the way he whispered in her ear and made her pretend to giggle, even as he was really analyzing everything about where their target exactly went and the best way to get close to him — but the look in his eyes was real. 

Even when they were on assignment, she knew he enjoyed being with her, had fun having her there. That part was still weird to her — to not just be okay with having a partner but to actually like it, to know someone trusted her completely and had her back no matter what. She had been trained to do everything alone, to depend on no one but herself, but one look in his eyes as he twirled her around the dance floor, ever closer to their target, and she reminded herself that her new life was different, was better.

She would never tell him that — at least not for the time being — but she hoped he knew.

•••

[Maria Hill]

The thing she remembered most about her first dance with Maria — because there were many other dances with Hill throughout that night, there at the first SHIELD New Year’s ball she ever went to, as the champagne in her glass kept refilling itself (not that she came even close to being drunk but because she came closer that night to being what she considered _happy_ than any night she’d had before in her life) — was the shape of her mouth. The way she hummed under her breath in time to the music as they spun around the room, the way her lips parted just so near the end of the song as she sucked in slightly more air than she had when they started. The way her lips looked as they talked about the co-workers they slipped by as they moved together, perfectly in tune, and especially the way Maria’s lips looked when she laughed at something Natasha said.

Natasha felt something stir in her chest as her eyes kept slipping to Maria’s lips, and she felt her own lips curve into something of a smile.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you smile before, Agent Romanoff,” Maria whispered into her ear as the final chords rang over the loudspeaker.

Natasha stopped herself from smiling any more than she already was. All she let herself say in return was, “Well, I’m full of surprises.”

•••

[Tony Stark]

The thing she remembered most about her first spin around the dance floor with Tony, back when she was Natalie and not Natasha to everyone but him, was the confidence with which he led them, every step surer than the last, every beat perfectly followed. It surprised her in a way she didn’t expect it to, because it reminded her of herself. Every move precise, sure, exactly where she wanted it to be.

She had only seen the other side of Tony before — the egotistical one, the one who couldn’t see through his own weaknesses, who saw himself above others — but this one, this one who held her and spun her and joked with her like she was more than a SHIELD agent assigned to report back on him, was confident without being egotistical, was smart without being an ass, was self-deprecating without being insulting.

She would have told him so, except doing that would undermine everything she was and it was not in her nature to spill her secrets, so instead, she asked him to dance with her again, and was secretly pleased when he agreed.

•••

[Steve Rogers]

The thing she would never forget about dancing with Steve was the way he made her feel — not just the fact that she could feel her heart pounding in her chest when he held her or the way she noticed her fingers slightly trembling when he took her hand but the way he made her feel almost safe. Safe was something she had never really felt, not even when she joined SHIELD. It was an elusive feeling, something she had heard other people claim to feel but that she didn’t understand.

But when she was there, and his arms were around her, and she could smell the scent of his cologne and his shampoo and she could feel the muscles underneath his shirt, and she could see the way he looked at her like she was the only thing that mattered, she suddenly understood what people meant. It was like she could stay there all day and know that everything would be all right.

But one thing life could never erase was the training that had taught her that playing it safe was for people who weren’t capable of surviving. And Natasha was nothing if not a survivor.

So she tilted her head the first time they danced and raised herself on to her toes and pressed her lips against Steve’s and watched him blink in surprise.

But he didn’t let go of her as he bent down a second later and kissed her back, and as his hold around her tightened just so, she realized with a small dose of surprise that she wanted to dance with Steve every day.

And so she did.


End file.
